Gas producer



H. G. JOHNSTON.

GAS PRODUCER.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 16, 1920.

Patented Apr. 11, 1922.

UNITED STATES PATENT QFFECE.

HORACE G. JOHNSTON, OF CORSICANA, TEXAS, ASSIGNOR TO GENEVIEVE JOHNSTON, 0F CORSICANA, TEXAS.

GAS PRODUCER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 11, 1922.

To all who? it may concern:

Be it known that I, HORACE G. Joims'roN, citizen of the United States, residing at Corsicana, in the county of Navarro and State of Texas, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Gas Producers; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to gas producers of that type in which combustible gases are evolved from coal, lignite, or the like, during incomplete combustion thereof.

The objects of this invention are to properly charge the fuel chamber of the producer without obstructing the free flow of the combustible gases evolved from the fuel to the gas collecting space, and to guard against the destructive effects of accidental explosions o infiammation of the gases collected in the gas collecting portion of the producer.

The invention comprises a charging chute constructed to permit the free passage of gases through its walls and in a safety appliance in the wall of the gas collecting chamber within which the charging chute depends.

In the accompanying drawings, in which similar reference characters designate corresponding parts throughout the several views:

Figure 1 is a vertical section through a conventional gas producer having my improvement applied thereto;

Figure 2 is a detail sectional view of a conventional charging hopper and valve, said section being taken at right angles to the section shown in Figure 1.

I have embodied my improvement in a gas producer of the shaft-furnace type, the shaft in the present instance comprising an upright cylinder 1 of boiler iron surrounded by a shell 2 spaced from the wall of the cylinder 1 thereby forming a water jacket within which water is continuously circulated to protect the iron wall of the shaft. The jacketing shell 2 has its upper and lower margins turned inward, riveted to the body 1, and caulked water tight. The cylindrical body or shaft 1, described, is supported on an annular conoidal casting 3, to which it is bolted or riveted as at 4. The casting 3 is supported by a cylindrical member 5 of boiler iron, to which the lower margin of the casting 3 is riveted as at 5. An annular casting 7 is supported within cylindrical member 5 and sustains the conical grate 8. Raceways are provided on the under side of the margin of the grate and on the casting 7 between which is an annular series of balls 9 whereby the said grate may be rotated easily. In the upper portion of the body 5 are doors 10, through whlch a slice bar or other fuel agitating tool may be inserted to clear the grate bars or to rake out the elinkers. An ash pit 11 is provided below the grate 8, said ash pit having a door 11 from which ashes may be removed. An annular angle bar 12 may be riveted to the lower end of the body 5, and rests on the foundation on which the pro ducer is erected.

In the embodiment shown, the upper end of the producer is of conoidal form, as indicated at 13, a conical top piece being bolted or riveted to the upper end of the cylinder 1, as shown at 1 1. Depending centrally from the conoidal member 13 is a fuel charging and distributing chute 20, the wall of which tapers from the discharge end 21 upward to its upper end, which is riveted at 22 t0 the conoidal member 13. Projecting upward above the chute 20 and in communication with it is a charging conduit or hopper 23, which may be provided with any known or desirable type of charging valve 2% adapted to be operated to charge fuel into the chute 20 without permitting the escape of a material quantity of gas from the producer. Although I have shown a conventional rotary, pocketed, air tight valve 24, this is no part of my invention, and any convenient form of charging device may be used.

The wall of the chute 20 is so constructed as to permit passage of gases freely through it from the inside of said chute to its exterior into the annular portion of the gas collecting space located in the upper end of the shaft and comprising the space within and surrounding said chute. Openings of any suitable form may be made in the wall of the chute. In the embodiment illustrated, a large number of slits, extending vertically of the chute, as indicated at 25, permit the gases to pass freely through the side walls of said chute. A gas conduit 26 is arranged at one side of the gas chamber near the top of the cylindrical body 1 through which the combustible gases generated in the producer may be withdrawn.

In order to avoid injury to the producer in case of excessive pressure of the gas within the chamber, as in case said gas should become mixed with an undue quantity of air and explosion take place, I have fitted a relief or safety device in the wall of cylinder 1 in its upper portion. In the embodimentshown, this relief or safety device is a valve 27 forced against its seat 28 by a spring 29 exerting sufiicient pressure to keep the valve closed except when there is a predetermined increase of pressure, as would be the case if the gas evolved from the fuel were ignited within the gas chamber.

In operation, coal, lignite', or similar fuel will be charged into the hopper 23 and fed through the chute 20 into the chamber within the cylinder 1, and the said coal or lignite ignited above the grate in the lower portion of the charge. The heat generated by the burning lower stratum of fuel distills off the volatile portions of the fuel from the layers above the ignited stratum, said volatile portions collecting in vaporous or gaseous forms in the gas collecting space or chamber in the upper part of the shaft, whence they are drawn off through the conduit 26.

In practice, the coal or lignite woul be charged into the chute 20 so as to keep the chute filled. Fuel should be maintained in the chute as a reservoir so that as the bed below is burned away the fuel in the chute keeps falling down. The gases and vapors distilled from the fuel rise throughout the upper stratum of the mass, some passing directly into the annular space surrounding the chute 20 and some passing directly up into the chute from which they pass laterally into the annular space. The tapering form of the chute and its location in the center of the shaft guides the fuel being charged so that under the influence of gravity it tends to spread evenly over the top of the charge resting on the grate. The tapering form of the chute prevents any bridging of the fuel across the chute, so that all fuel charged into the chute 20 falls to the lower end of it and thence passes freely out onto the mass within the combustion chamber.

In practice, the grate 8 is kept rotating at a slow rate of speed, disposingof the ashes or residue of combustion by causing them to dropthrough the grate into the ash pit below. Clinkers tend to gravitate toward the outeredge of the grate where they come within reach of an instrument that may be inserted through the doors 10 and may be broken up or raked out through said doors.

By my invention machinery or movin apparatus in the upper part of the shaft to? the purpose of distributing or levelling the fuel is rendered unnecessary. The objections to moving parts in highly heated spaces are obvious. Also, by my invention, danger to the apparatus by accidental explosion of evolved gases is eliminated.

Having described my invention in such manner as to enable those skilled in the art to make and use the same, what I claim is:

1. A gas producer comprising a furnace shaft, a fuel charging and distributing chute depending centrally within said shaft and terminating above the combustion space, thus providing an annular gas collecting chamber between said chute and the wall of said shaft, said chute having perforations distributed throughout its area permitting free passage of gas between the interior of the chute and said annular collecting chamber, and a draw-off conduit communicating with the gas-collecting chamber. v p

2. A gas producer comprising a furnace shaft, a 1 fuel charging and distributing chute depending centrally within said, shaft and terminating above the combustion space, thus providing an annular gas-collecting chamber between said chute and the wall of said shaft, said chute having a plu rality of vertical slits distributed through out its area permitting free passage of. gas between the interior of the chute and said annular collecting chamber, and a draw-off conduit communicating with the gas-collecting chamber. 5 V

3. A gas producer comprising, a furnace shaft, a fuel charging and distributing chute depending centrally within said shaft and terminating above the combustion space, thus providing an annular gas collecting chamber between said chute and the wall of said shaft, said chute having perforations distributed throughout {its area permitting free passage of gas between the interior of the chute and said annular collecting chamber, a safety vent in the wall. of said gas collecting chamber closed under normal pressure of gas within the chamber.

tween said chute and the wall of said shaft,

said chute having perforations distributed throughout its area permit-ting free passage.

of gas between the interior of the chute and said annular collecting chamber, and a draw-off conduit communicating with the gas-collecting chamber.

In testimony whereof I afiix mysignature.

HORACE G. JOHNSTON. 

